Sensex, Nifty flat; HUL, LT, ICICI Bank early gainers

9:50 am Buzzing: Shares of Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) rose 3 percent intraday on Tuesday as government is planning to pump in more funds into it. The government has approved raising its stake in IFCI to 51 percent by infusing Rs 60 crore in the country’s oldest financial institution.

“The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, approved infusion of Rs 60 crore in IFCI to make it a government company by way of acquisition of preference shares from existing shareholder(s),” an official statement said.

IFCI was set up in 1948 as a statutory corporation under the Industrial Finance Corporation Act, 1948. The Act has since been repealed by the Industrial Finance Corporation (Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) Act, 1993 and IFCI Ltd was registered under the Companies Act, 1956 on March 31, 1993, it said. The current shareholding of Government of India in IFCI after inclusion of the preference share capital was 47.93 percent, it said.

9:30 am In news: Concor is expected to be a big beneficiary of Land Acquisition Amendment, as the implementation of Dedicated Freight Corridor/Industrial Corridor would get a boost , and remember co plans to develop several multimodal logistics parks/private freight terminals (PFT) across India and along the DFC.

Government today recommended promulgation of an ordinance making significant changes in the Land Acquisition Act including removal of consent clause for acquiring land for five areas of industrial corridors, PPP projects, rural infrastructure, affordable housing and defence.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to amend the Act to bring under its purview 13 central legislations, including those relating to defence and national security, to provide higher compensation and rehabilitation and resettlement benefits to farmers whose land is being acquired.

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The market has opened with some mild gains. The Sensex is up 37.03 points at 27432.76, and the Nifty is up 14.00 points at 8260.30. About 412 shares have advanced, 125 shares declined, and 18 shares are unchanged.

HUL, L&T, Tata Motors, Hindalco and ICICI Bank are top gainers in the Sensex. GAIL, Hero, HDFC Bank, Wipro and ONGC are among the laggards.

The Indian rupee opened marginally lower at 63.72 per dollar as against previous day’s closing value of 63.67 a dollar.

Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank said, “The USD/INR pair has been fairly rangebound consolidating around the 63.50/dollar levels, with year-end demand and global dollar strength coupled with suspected intervention keeping it in a tight range.”

The euro remains rooted close to a 28-month trough against the dollar, but did not dip beneath that low. Greek bond yields shot higher after the vote as investors took fright, with the borrowing costs on 10-year bonds rising to 9.7 percent.

In the US stocks closed narrowly mixed, amid fresh lows on oil prices and earlier pressure on European stocks from Greece’s failure to elect a president. The CBoE volatility index traded above 15.

In Europe, shares closed mixed, with Greece struck by renewed political uncertainty after its politicians failed to agree on a new president. France’s cac and the UK’s FTSE both posted modest gains, while the German DAX closed flat.However, stock indexes in “peripheral” Europe underperformed, led by Greece. The Athens index closed down around 3.9 percent, with the Italian FTSE MIB down 1.1 percent and the Spanish IBEX lower by roughly 1 percent.

Greek stocks and bonds were hit after politicians in the country failed for a third time to endorse Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ preferred candidate. This means that general elections will occur early next year, potentially jeopardizing Greece’s hard-won economic recovery.

In commodities, crude oil prices tumble, with Brent and NYMEX crude hitting their lowest levels since may 2009 on selling by investors convinced that supply disruptions in Libya would not offset a global supply glut.

In the precious metals space gold prices fell, as a strong US dollar and bearish chart signal offset uncertainty over the prospect of fresh elections in Greece.